July 26, 2003

Lance on his strategy on the course today: "Johan told me after a kilometer-and-a-half that I'd lost six seconds, and then I brought it back to three, and then two, and then even, and then went up by six or seven or eight or ten seconds. Then at that point I just went, 'I'll just go my pace.' Then I heard he [Ullrich] crashed, and from then on it was just a little tour of Nantes."

Also:

Lance on win number five: "This has been a very hard Tour for me, for a lot of reasons, some of which people know, some of which people don't know. It's just been very tough, and I'm glad it's over. Almost over."

I'll be very curious to hear what the reasons people don't know will be -- maybe lingering effects of Lance's crash in the Dauphiné Libéré, or the spill on Stage 1? It's a good thing Armstrong has a talent for the poker face.